29 December 1976
Show ; Name *John Peel Show ; Station *BBC Radio One ; YYYY-MM-DD *1976-12-29 ; Comments * Fourth of six shows featuring the legendary, long-lost 1976 Festive Fifty, the first ever. The original broadcast took place from 11 p.m.-12 midnight, and due to time restrictions and fairly lengthy tracks, only six chart positions could be accommodated. Before the recording below became available, the tracklisting information below was kindly provided by Ken Garner, author of The Peel Sessions, via the Peel Mailing List. *However, early 2011 saw a collaboration between Ken and his friend John Kavanagh that finally allowed a tape of this show to be shared: many thanks to both of them. *Start of show: "Well, what a pleasure it was to have another chance to hear our Eurovision winner of last year again in the previous programme. This was of course Brotherhood Of Man with the Peel-friendly 'Save Your Kisses For Me.' And of course, another useful point tonight, eh? What a team. A reference to Liverpool's 1-1 away draw with Manchester City that night. Tonight we're going to be picking up our Festive 50, something of an ongoing situation, as we media communicators say, at number 24. And we also have high grade session material from the Bowles Brothers and Graham Parker & The Rumour. In fact, what with one thing and another, we might as well start with G.P. and the R." Session Repeats *Bowles Brothers, #1. Recorded 1976-08-05. No known commercial release. *Graham Parker & The Rumour, #2. Recorded 1976-11-02. Available on Not If It Pleases Me (Hux). Tracklisting *Graham Parker & The Rumour: 'Hotel Chambermaid' (Peel Session) :(JP: 'The single version of that should have been a hit in my estimation, but it wasn't....That song occurs on their LP Heat Treatment, which is number 123 in the American album charts at the moment, in case you're interested. Don't suppose you are for a moment.') *Bowles Brothers: 'Sweeter Than Sugar' (Peel Session) :(JP: 'If the Bowles Brothers are actually listening, I'd like to thank them for their Christmas card. Don't suppose they knew for a moment that they'd actually sent me one, but they did, and a handsome one it was too. I've rather dropped down: didn't get a Christmas card from Cliff Richard this year, or from Dusty Springfield, which I have done in past years, although I did get one from Bryan Ferry signed simply "Bryan". I shall be taking offers for that early in the New Year. And also one from Racing Cars, think that was about it actually from "famous people".') *Graham Parker & The Rumour: 'Help Me Shake It' (Peel Session) (JP: 'A line I've tried a few times myself without any success.') *Bowles Brothers: 'Nuts For Charlie' (Peel Session) :(JP: '1976 has been a remarkable year for debut sessions, with Aswad, Racing Cars, Lone Star, the Damned and several others, and one hopes that 1977 will be as good.') *Graham Parker & The Rumour: 'Heat Treatment' (Peel Session) 1976 Festive Fifty: Numbers 24-19 :(JP: 'And we're back to the Festive Fifty now, and this is one of the few records from the Summer Of Love of 1967 that made it into the Festive Fifty.') *'24': Jefferson Airplane: 'White Rabbit (7") (RCA) :(JP (in cod Paul Gambaccini accent): 'These are the records that you, the listener, chose to hear over the holiday season.') *'23': Bob Dylan: 'Visions Of Johanna (LP-Blonde On Blonde)' (CBS) :(JP: 'There were something like fifty different Dylan songs voted for by listeners, so for that reason alone, not a great many of them got into the Festive Fifty....Now, if you don't mind getting your feet wet, this is number 22.') *'22': Doors: 'Riders On The Storm (LP-L.A. Woman)' (Elektra) :(JP: 'Well, I know as a compulsive list-maker myself, there are probably say 350, 400 people throughout the country who are busy writing this Festive Fifty down as we go along: in fact, I know of three personally, and I imagine there are more than that. In case you've missed anything, the whole thing's going to be reprinted in one of the music papers, not in this week's issue, but in next week's issue, just so that you can't cheat and find out in advance what the top records are.') *'21': Van Morrison: 'Madame George (LP-Astral Weeks)' (Warner) :(JP: 'I remember how mad me and me mates went on that when it first came out. As you can hear, it's been played quite a lot. Sorry about that.') *'20': Lynyrd Skynyrd: 'Freebird (LP-(Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd))' (MCA) :(JP: 'I wasn't sure whether you wanted that version or the live version, so I took an executive decision and picked that one 'cos I think it's a lot better actually....The only surprise there is that it wasn't higher, and the same thing holds true of this.') *'19': Led Zeppelin: 'Whole Lotta Love (LP-Led Zeppelin II)' (Atlantic) :(JP: 'What a strange thing: not a single vote for the C.C.S. version.') File ;Name *Peel 1976-12-29 F50 #24-19 *1976-12-29 John Peel BBC Radio 1.mp3 ;Length *a) 00:59:17 *b) 00:59:21 ;Other *Extremely good quality stereo recording, considering its age: encoded at 192kbps. ;Available *a) No longer available online *b) Mooo ;Footnotes Category:1976 Category:Peel shows Category:Festive Fifty Category:Available online